Panic
by LoBot24
Summary: Season 9 Post-Charade/Hostage: Two cousins managing a mini-"crisis". Let's see what they're up to.


A different take on cousin-bonding

Disclaimer: I own utterly nothing of Smallville or its characters

**Panic**

"Chloe, I need you!" a fairly distraught sounding Lois implored. Lois Lane's cousin Chloe Sullivan, brought her eyebrows together at the sound of Lois' agitation. "Lo, you sound  
awful, did someone ..die?" she let that kind of trail off. Chloe could hear a strangled sound emit from Lois. "No, but someone soon will." Chloe thought that doesn't sound good. "Uh Lois, cryptic much?" Chloe thought it best to inject a bit of levity. Only Lois wasn't having any of it. "Chloe! I need my baby cousin now!" she added, "Get over here to the Daily Planet."

Chloe made her way down the familiar steps toward the bullpen. She could see that Lois was wearing out a path at her desk. There was near frantic muttering, broken off epitaphs, and wilder than usual gesturing with her hands. So much so, that it didn't register with Lois that Chloe was standing there as "requested." "Lois…" Chloe tried to reach out to grab Lois by the arm, but she had all ready reversed her stalk of a pace. With much more volume, Chloe tried again. "Lois!" Lois stopped dead in her tracks. "Chloe! Oh, thank God." Chloe's mind worked thru the possibilities. "Lois, is there something wrong with The General or Lucy?" shake of the head. "Someone ding your car in the parking garage?" and then, "You weren't able to get your usual 'could raise a cadaver' coffee?" Seeing further shakes of the head no, Chloe was running out of ideas, until… "Oh no! What did Clark do?"

At the mention of Clark's name, Lois' eyes narrowed. She took a huge intake of breath and let Chloe have it. "Chloe, look at my desk!" and Chloe did indeed take a look at her cousin's desk. Oh, how it gleamed. Loose papers were now in binders, and in alpha order. Her press passes and badges, were now arranged neatly, and in year order. All post-it notes were now at the bottom of the wastepaper basket, but had been transferred to word document form, and inserted into a folder. Lois' coffee mugs were cleaned and stacked neatly. All her Whitesnake CD's had the correct discs in the correct jewel cases. To top it all off her snacks were now arranged by order of preference.

Chloe could see this for what it was. An incredibly sweet and well-intentioned thought from one person that cares for the other. Which would have worked for anyone other than one Lois Lane. Clark would have been better served getting her a subscription to Ben and Jerry's flavor of the month club. Chloe really loved that Clark had wanted to do something nice for Lois. Especially now, but glancing over at her big cousin, and seeing the agitation still so clearly etched upon her face…. Chloe swallowed her smile.

"Well, Lo, I can see why you might be a bit unsettled by all of this." making a sweeping motion with her hand. "Is it really so bad?" Lois turned and looked at her cousin as if she had suddenly sprouted another head. "So, bad???" "Chloe, how can I get any work done with all this..this…ORDER!" Chloe waited for more. " Chlo, this desk has represented many years of hard work. I've built up layers of research, that have now been undone, and for what?" Lois looked down, and saw the shiny silver surface of her desk, having never noticed it before. Chloe realized that this was more than a total organizational overhaul. This was Lois missing Clark. Missing them as a couple, despite the fact that it was Lois who pulled the plug. For most of Lois' life she had to deal with constant change, being moved all over the world with The General. It wasn't until living in Smallville for the last few years, did Lois finally feel like she might have a home somewhere. And then, slowly over that time, Clark had truly become home for Lois, and now she was probably feeling a little lost all over again. Chloe could relate, her own life had changed so much over the last two years.

She gave Lois a sympathetic look, and did what any good cousin would do. Chloe preceded to loosen all the binders and dump the sheets of paper on top of the desk. Grinning at Lois, she gestured for her to get in on the act. Lois knocked over the Whitesnake CD's, and poured coffee in every single mug. In what Chloe considered the coup de grace, Lois dumped the entire contents of a bag of Chimmi Chips all over what had been so spotless mere moments ago. The two cousins gave high-fives to each other, as Lois looked upon her desk with satisfaction. "Now this, THIS is more like it!"

Clark entered the bullpen, with mussed hair and tie askew. Chloe recognized the tell tale signs of a Clark who had come back from making a save. Sensing that her work here was done, Chloe decided to make herself scarce. She smiled and said bye to her cousin, and as she walked by Clark, whispered, " The desk did look nice for a little while." She opted to take the elevator and as she waited, turned to look back at her two closest friends. Clark had extended his arm toward Lois, Chloe could see it was a bud vase, with a lily. As Chloe entered the elevator, she saw just before the doors closed, that Lois had rushed into Clark's arms. She smiled a hopeful smile.

~fin


End file.
